In recent years, mobile wireless communications have become increasingly popular. Presently, mobile devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), smartphones, cell phones, tablet PCs and other portable computers are rapidly gaining popularity. Mobile devices are available with interfaces enabling communications via mobile networks or local area network (LAN) wireless access points (hereinafter “wireless hotspot networks” or “hotspots”). Currently, mobile networks are operational that conform with the fourth generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. These mobile networks provide voice communication, messaging, email and internet access (for example) by using radio frequency communication. Communications via hotpots may occur using a communications standard such as IEEE 802.11 (“WiFi”) network type wireless access points.
The mobile devices with capability of accessing services through a mobile network or through a hotspot network usually are sold at a point of sale (POS) of the mobile network carrier and activated for voice communication and data transfer at the POS at the time of purchase.
Recently, sales channels have diversified such that buyers can buy the mobile devices via websites and markets other than the POS of the mobile network carrier. In these later purchase channels, a buyer purchases only a mobile device via a website or another non-carrier market without buying a data plan to access the mobile network. Therefore the buyer needs to activate the mobile device on the buyer's own by buying the data plan of the mobile network separately or adding the device to an existing plan (e.g. instead of or in addition to other devices of the user). This type of self-activation by a user, however, may occur a significant amount of time after purchase of the mobile device and requires a user (rather than a salesperson at the POS) to locate and manually input information uniquely identifying the newly purchased mobile device as well as other information used to complete the self-activation. This process of locating and manually inputting the information can be frustrating and error-prone.